Starting Agility

I am curious, what kind of start did everyone get in agility? Were you taught flat handling skills, contact behaviours etc.......before doing the obstacles?
When did you learn body language and positional cues? How soon were you doing sequences or courses??
If you now compete in agility, how would you rate your FIRST trainer on a scale of 1 -10?
And would you go back now with a different dog to that trainer? If no, why not?
Thanks
Lynn

Well, I emailed a trainer the other night for Agiltiy training, so I will let you know

But I have already taught Lizzie some commands for Agility.

I unfortunately got a start in agility with trainers that do not like treats, toys, and clikers involved in training. Their idea of training a dog in agility was and is dragging them through a course of 5-8 obstacles on leash, forcing them up and over things, and continuing this way until the dogs actually learn to do the obstacles. So, unfortunately, this was how my first agility dogs were taught.

We were NEVER taught handling skills, contact behaviors(yell at them and hop they hit it, if they dont' they get harsh correction), and body language was never really taught as well.

Can't expect much out of trainers that have actually never competed in agiliyt though, now can you?

I am still with those trainers, and I rate then with a 2 or 3

I'm still with them, but any dog that lives in my house is FULLY trained with all the basics and conditioning, etc before they are ever taken to class to ensure that they are taught agility in a positive way.

Are negative numbers allowed? Dusty's first trainer started dogs on full-height contacts, taught the dogs agility by dragging/shoving them over the obstacles for one private lesson and then putting them into a group class where she used whatever quick fixes necessary to get the dog to "do agility" (usually involving shoving, leash "guidance," and baited targets used in such a way that taught the dog very little). She also thought that there are slow Goldens and fast Goldens and Dusty is just a slow Golden.

A few years ago we stopped training with her and started training with Terry Simons. Did a lot of retraining with Dusty, starting with clicker training attention, tricks, interacting with objects, and fast sit and down, then adding running fast with me on the flat, then retrained most of the obstacles. Shaped him to do the teeter from scratch, used slanted poles to get better weave footwork, used his tricks to get him comfortable on the table, and generally shifted the focus from running clean to getting as much enthusiasm as possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntXbbPUtNI8 my slow Golden

I trained Boo by myself and kind of haphazardly, like "I think I'll teach Boo weaves today," because he wasn't intended to be a competition dog (more of a guinea pig for my new methods before I used them on the puppy I was going to get). I still made sure that the end contact behavior, verbal directionals, solid stay, etc was there before we started training obstacles, but his obstacle training itself could have been better. He's hurt his shoulder right now but in the next few weeks I'm going to go back and work on some of the things we missed (his main issues are independent weave entries and sending ahead to contacts, which are things a lot of dogs at the open and excellent levels aren't too great at, but the way I see it is that Novice is for green dog ring experience and before I move him up I want him to be giving the kind of performances I'd be happy with in Excellent).

Well I have only ever attended agility once with Minnie. The pups were guided onlead over the bridges and stuff (although I would not call it dragged) and there was lots of praise treats and toys involved. They did a half hour general puppy handling session first. I was actually very impressed with the trainer and the results that he got with the pups. He is an ex police dog trainer, so I guess that his methods should work LOL.

i've just started teaching buster the basic commands like "hup" for over. and "through" and such. he's a terrific jumper. but i'll be starting formal training in a few weeks hopefully.

plus he's good at the svery fast sit, and down. i also wanna try to start clicker trainging.

We did a lot of flatwork handling cues.. Then learned jumps, tunnel, hoop, and a small height a frame all in a 6 week beginner course. It was heavier on handling cues than most people's it seems, but I like that looking back. Didn't seem fun, but it was useful.. We attempted short sequences for fun the last beginner class.

Intermediate and advanced classes were still learning individual obstacles, and sequencing some, along with better body positions and learning how to make the cues we knew go smoother.

We've taken one competitive class and it is some full length sequencing along with classes devoted to one thing like improving front crosses, etc.

We've had the same trainers through all our levels, though at 2 different schools, and I think it's gone well. It was a better start than I could have hoped for I think.

Well lets just say that the trainer I started with had good intentions but not a clue. We started with flat training of a sort, no clicker, the idea of 2o2o or running contacts was non existant. There was no consistancy when a new idea came out we trained it whether it was to our benefit or not. When I surpassed her achievements with her dogs with my first dog by getting into Masters lvl well before her I decided that it was time to find a new trainer. Fortunately I found Maryellen Barry who helped me to recognize my goal of putting an ADCH on my first agility dog.

I've taken classes from two different schools, and I think they both served very different purposes.

The first school is much more focused on pet training, and probably has at least twice the number of beginner classes than any other level. A lot of people do beginner for fun, and never move on. That class gets people on the equipment quickly and keeps the class moving quickly - once the dogs have been introduced to everything, every class uses pretty much all the equipment.

The second school has quite a number of people competing and moving up the levels. I think it does a much better job of teaching the equipment correctly. Each class tends to focus more on one or two topics - contacts or jump handling, for instance. They teach crosses on the flat first. This school is also much more willing to discuss theory and try to find what works best for each individual pair.

The first school does a lot more courses, which is obviously a lot of fun for the people and the dog. I've noticed that since I stopped there (they only teach in the summer), Meg has seemed a bit less forward during our other class. Since she's a pretty low drive dog, running longer courses helps get her pumped up a bit; the class we are in through the winter doesn't do that as much. I think the two are actually a good combination for me, since one helps with accuracy and one with drive.

If I had a new dog, I would probably stay at the second school at least for the first few levels, then maybe add in the other just to get some more course time in.